Summary report on the activities developed by the CERU in 2014, and on the activities foreseen for 2015
Framework The main objectives stated in the EUR-OPA Agreement Guidelines for the 2014-2015 Programme of Activities were: Using information to save lives and help victims Using knowledge to reduce vulnerability Placing people at the heart of disaster risk reduction
The CERU project INsPIREd (“Inform and Involve the population on seismic and tsunami risk prevention – Contribution for minimizing damage and increasing resilience. Application to Cascais and Lagos (Portugal), Tanger and M’Diq (Morocco)”), developed in partnership with the CEPRIS (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Evaluation and Prevention of Seismic Risk, Rabat, Morocco) and CUEBC (European University for the Cultural Heritage, Ravello, Italy), is aligned with the above mentioned EUR-OPA Agreement Guidelines and aims at reducing risks and increasing resilience in urban areas, developing warning systems, encouraging information on risks to be publicly accessible, promoting risk awareness and measures for risk mitigation, developing exercises and simulations and studying and proposing solutions to be used by particularly vulnerable people in case of disasters.
2014 Activities In the context of the INsPIREd project the CERU developed the following activities in 2014: Collaborated with the Civil Protection Municipal authorities (mainly from Lisbon and Cascais) in information and awareness sessions on earthquake and tsunami risks, (among others risks) devoted to the general public. These actions took place in public facilities and their target audience ranged from adults to children. Information on self-protection measures was also addressed. Organized a Seminar entitled “Involve the public in reducing the risks: alert, awareness and measures to minimize the risks. Situation of disabled and / or handicapped persons. Application: tsunami risk” that was held in Setúbal. Civil Protection technicians from Cascais, Lisboa, Amadora, Torres Vedras, Lagos and Setúbal participated in this seminar, as well as technicians from the Portuguese Civil Protection. Representatives of universities, private and state companies (bank, power company, port facilities), municipal technicians, engineers, architects, sociologists, psychologists and environment technicians among others, participated in the Seminar. A special session dedicated to the discussion of the main actions to be developed in the Project INsPIREd took place at the end of the Seminar. Organized a Seminar entitled “Involve people in risk reduction” in collaboration with the local authorities of Lagos. The Civil Protection authorities from Lisbon, Cascais and Lagos participated in this seminar that took place in Lagos, in the Algarve. Colleagues from CEPRIS and CUEBC, partners of the INsPIREd project, were also present. A special session dedicated to the discussion of the progress of the Project INsPIREd, the main problems to be addressed and the main actions to be developed took place at the end of the Seminar. Published two leaflets to be distributed in the Lagos, both in Portuguese and English, addressing the topics of seismic and tsunami risks and including safety and post-event measures. Improved the CERU webpage in order to better inform the public on measures to minimize risks and increase the population resilience (main goal of INsPIREd project) Supported the study on the social vulnerability of Lagos that started in 2014, in collaboration with the Lagos Municipality. Four Portuguese researchers and technicians participated in another Seminar of the project INsPIREd, that took place in Tangier, Morocco, on the 24th and 25th November, 2014. Representatives of the specialized centres CERU and CUEBC presented the progress of the Project. Central authorities of Rabat, regional authorities of the Wilaya of Tangier – Tetouan, and representatives of international and diplomatic organizations attended the seminar and participated in the discussions that took place among policy makers, experts and academics. Elaborated a proposal for a permanent exhibition on risks, the Centre for Risk Interpretation. The exhibition will stimulate the awareness of school students and general public on all risks, natural and man made. It comprises hands-on activities, games and multimedia presentations. CERU’s Director participated in the annual meeting of the directors of specialised centres of the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, that took place in the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France, 11 – 12 December, 2014.
In addition to the activities carried out under the project INsPIREd, the CERU developed the following activities:
Conclusion of the legal constitution of CERU, by registering and publishing the new version of CERU’s Statutes; Participation in several activities developed to honour Professor Mendes Victor, former CERU President (co-organization of seminars and formal meetings, production of a commemorative medal, etc.); Collaboration and support to several public information sessions, performed in the cities of Cascais, Lisbon and Setúbal. For instance, CERU participated in the Civil Protection Week of Cascais Municipality, aiming at raising the awareness on seismic and tsunami risk and explaining the subjacent physical phenomena of these natural events; Participation and collaboration on the evaluation of the national exercise “A Terra Treme” (Shake Out) performed on October 13th, 2014, promoted and organized by the Portuguese National Authority for Civil Protection (ANPC); CERU members presented two communications in national scientific meetings, published in the respective proceedings: 1. a communication concerning the evacuation routes in Lagos, in case of tsunami occurrence, addressing the results of the VULRESADA project, 8th Spanish-Portuguese Assembly on Geodesy and Geophysics – 8ALEGG (http://www.8alegg.cge.uevora.pt./); 2. a communication concerning the evaluation of the Portuguese Shakeout exercise in 2013, 9th National Conference on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering – JPEE2014/SISMICA2014 (http://jpee2014.lnec.pt/).
Activities foreseen for 2015
During 2015 CERU will continue the actions started in 2014, in the framework of the project INsPIREd, namely: To conclude the study on the Social vulnerability of Lagos; To conclude the development of the CERU webpage and its promotion, in order to better meet the INsPIREd objectives; To prepare a questionnaire to survey the hotels in the coastal areas, in order to check their preparedness for tsunami risk and to raise their awareness on the importance of giving information on tsunami risk to guests; To collaborate on information and awareness actions on risks undertaken by the Municipal Civil Protection authorities or by local associations, mainly in Cascais and Lagos, but that could be extended to other municipalities To participate on the elaboration of an itinerary exhibition, in Lagos, on risk perception (seismic and tsunami), prevention and implementation measures to minimize the risk Together with Lagos and Cascais Municipalities, to prepare the adequate signalling for tsunami warning and evacuation routes. To prepare information to be supplied to national institutions in the field of prevention of seismic and tsunami hazards. The CERU will organize in Portugal, in May 2015 the INsPIREd seminar. The Italian, French, Greece and Morocco partners already confirmed their attendance and will participate in the Morocco seminar, organized by CEPRIS. To elaborate the final report of the INsPIREd project To prepare the projects to be submitted to the Council of Europe for the biennium 2016-17.
Outside the scope of the INsPIREd project CERU will also participate on the activities proposed by the Municipality of Lisbon on the evocation of the 260th anniversary of the Lisbon earthquake (Program “Lisboa + cidade + resiliente + segura 260 anos do terramoto de 1755”). In 2015 CERU will start the organisation of an International Conference on Urban Risks (ICUR) to be held in Lisbon on June 2016.
Lisbon, 26th February 2015
Paula Teves Costa CERU Director